Many municipalities in central Tokyo have for years set themselves apart from local governments elsewhere competing to offer attractive, and sometimes unique, return gifts to win donations under a system that grants donors tax deductions.
Tokyo's densely populated 23 wards, which tend to lack primary products such as meat and fruit to offer as return gifts, have suffered a serious drain of financial resources under the furusato nōzei (hometown tax donation) system.
In a bid to stem the outflows, some governments in the capital have started to spruce up their menus of return gifts to turn donors' heads.